Rather than muck up yesterday’s entry I’ll start this one with the bit of extra sightseeing we managed last night, on our way to dinner. We stopped at Alexanderplatz to have a look at the Weihnachtsmarkt that had been set up there (and continued on towards the one down by the Rotes Rathaus). Did not stop to eat or drink, as we were on our way to dinner. Very much a first-night-open feel: people weren’t really into the swing of it yet. The ice skating rink that had been set up was very much a roller-skating rink: no attempt had been made for ice: it was much too warm (probably around 10 degrees, even after dark).
Caught the bus back to Trio for a second dinner there. This time I had one of their specials of the week: leberspätzle. This is spätzle, but with some of the wet ingredients replaced with calves liver. Served with creamy mushroom sauce. Delicious. Also: bread and butter pudding for desert. Excellent.
I thought that I might be coming down with a bit of a cold last night: nose just wouldn’t stop running, so I took a night time cold and flu tablet on the way to bed and that helped get a good nights sleep. Slept in this morning too, but the thought of going out for breakfast at Father Carpenter picked me up a lot, as did the French Toast and coffee.
From there we caught the U-bahn back to Bundestag to have another go at the Tiergarten. Spent much of the afternoon looking at monuments and wandering through the light forest. Saw the Soviet War Memorial: one of the concessions the Soviets wrung from the Germans when drawing up the agreements that brought down the wall was the preservation of all of the soviet war graves in East Germany.
By late afternoon we’d had enough of that and hopped on a bus to take us to the Charlottenburg Palace. We didn’t go inside for a tour, or even through to the main gardens at the back: we were there for the christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkt) that were set up on the grounds at the front. It was still dusk as we arrived and just starting to get going. There was an ATM on site and I tried to get some cash from it (expecting the vendors to need it) but it didn’t respect either of my cards enough to actually vend any dollars. It looked real, and other people used it for cash. I hope I haven’t just given my pins to a spiv. Anyway, the first vendor that we tried (for flammkuchen, nophoto) allowed us to pay by card, including the plate/board deposit. He then provided the refund in cash, so I had cash to then use with the raclette späzle with shinken (so yum that we didn’t take its photo either) which also required a plate deposit. We weren’t brave or thirsty enough to try the Gluwein on this occasion. Just caught the bus back to the hotel to relax with a beer in the roof lounge while decanting photos…
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